Its the spot between tier 3 and tier 4. You can demolish the newbs but the elite give you a healthy ass fisting. You are at the apex of you game, you can no longer tweak your config or practice enough to be better. You are stuck where you are either demolishing the poor bastards that have downloaded the game on steam or getting raped by the nerds and genetic weirdos that dominate the game. Its what I call quake-live hell. Not even the tattoo on my ass makes it bearable.